Serpent's Fang
by L.Q. Brooks
Summary: Book 6 of 7. So many questions unanswered. When the questers find yet another dark secret, the last battle has begun. Part of it takes place in a darkened organization. And the serpent's fang is the only answer. Rated T for brief language. LOOK OUT FOR "THE END" TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.
1. The Final Hiding Place

1. The Final Hiding Place

The clock was ticking. Howard had built a clock out of rocks and Zeus' dead body. _Tick, tock, tick, tock. _Perhaps more annoying than Wiress' _tick, tock, tick, tock,_ but Ke$ha is just moody all the time. Humphrey pawed at the small arrow type things as it snapped his paw, only making him chuckle. Beetee and Violet smiled at the grey wolf in approval. They needed a laugh these days, even if it seemed to have come from pain. It works that way in the Ice Age, just so you know.

3:34. Howard turned around and looked down at Mitchell's dead body, frowning. Wade, Zeus, Swordneck, Hera, and Julien. He counted who had died in the battle in the ice age, and who would possibly still survive. He, then, glanced up at Zia, who immediately turned away, sheepishly and blushing. Howard, for the first time in days, smiled and continued working on the rope he had been working on earlier. He didn't do it for any particular reason, he just had to something so he wouldn't feel so sad. It didn't help.

Jack, Wade, Beetee, Wiress, Diego, Bilbo, Ripred, and Aurora all were looking down at Mitchell's dead body, probably thinking about how he must be doing in a better place. He didn't have to be in many of the battles, but if he knew how the big battle would end, I'm sure he would have wanted to die anyway. _Cough, cough. _Well, anyway, Manny stood up and told his friends, "Look, maybe we should get a little sleep. Who knows what will happen next?" They all nodded and collapsed.

* * *

Something sprinkled on Scrat's eyes. Maybe it was his nut juice, which may not have been drunken by Rickchaw. Or perhaps it was just the light of death trying to pry his eyes open. There is was again. How much nut juice was there? How much did the light want Scrat to die? Maybe, though, it was neither, as he had been wrong about many things before. All his nut ideas...were pointless. Maybe he should die. Maybe he should give in to the light, and walk into it. No, Manny had to be kept from dying.

Scrat opened his eyes. Yes, there was a blinding light in front of him. He tried to get up but toppled over every time he would get so close that he could almost feel the light's warmth. He closed his eyes again, turned his head, opened the eyes, and looked at the nut. It had broken in half during its time in the lava. Wait, lava? He didn't feel the lava. Strange. Anyway, in the prophecy of the nut, he could read it, but not too well as to understand it. Here is what he read.

WA' OYU RAE ITERD} ELEW I VAHE ODOG WSEN  
KAET A TACAVOIN' THIW RIKNSD FO RIUFT

He finally got the strength to get up, and he felt around his eyes. He had burnt them just a few minutes ago...or a few hours, or days, or even months! The lava pit was a mile away from him. How did he get there? Ah well. He took a better look at the prophecy.

AW, YOU ARE TIRED? WELL I HAVE GOOD NEWS  
TAKE A VACATION, WITH DRINKS OF FRUIT

Sweet!

* * *

Beetee heard a piercing scream in the middle of the night. He immediately opened his eyes and saw that the igloo was completely melted, and everyone was shivering, even though it was melted. The scream came from Ellie. "Questers! We need to evacuate! Hopefully the walls have melted. No groups, just go!" Everyone ran out at once, but it was a little hard because of the temperature. When they finally got to the walls, for a moment they stared in awe.

Then they started playing in the rubble.

**AR: **Sorry I haven't written in a few days, I just didn't have much time, what with school and stuff. Anyway, uh, here y'all go! Hey, did you know y'all is actually only supposed to be for one person? I meant all y'all.


	2. The Green Serpent

2. The Green Serpent

How could the Walls of Myth have been destroyed? It was so unnatural that it seemed it...simply could not be true. Luxa, Ripred, even tiny Peaches were very upset at what had happened to all the places they had ever called home. They were all destroyed. The Ice Age park, The Dinosaur World, The Igloo, and now the Walls of Myth? Could this day get any worse? Of course it could. A darkness would rise very soon, and it would be a danger that even the questers could not defeat.

* * *

Scrat, now at, as the nut called it, "the land of umbrella drinks of fruit" or whatever it was called, seemed much more relaxed than he had finding all of those nuts, and who wouldn't? It's hard for a small little squirrel/rat to do his small part in the quest. He deserved a vacation, even if he found guilt in probably letting the questers die. He knew his mission was important, but it was just so _hard_!. Wait, hold up. Of course he drinks the fruity umbrella drinks, but that's another story. HAWAII ROCKS!

* * *

When Manny picked up a rock of the remains of the Walls of Myth, tears formed in his eyes, for the first time in days. Why him and his family of all the people? If Peaches hadn't been in this mess...he should have just stayed in bed that dreadful day when Fast Tony told about the games, and when he was fearfully murdered in the beginning of the games. How would this story end? And would HIS story end? No, he couldn't think like that. But so many had died already, it was hard not to.

Would Jesse ever return, and would they be able to get Buck back, or had he already been killed? If Buck had already been killed then what were they fighting for? Suddenly it came to him. It was the enemy that kept coming to them. Jesse was returning, but it made no sense at all. They all knew he was Rickchaw, but what else? Or was it not Jesse at all, but some illusion to keep them occupied and running around? Whatever the reason, they had to stop it before all hell broke loose.

There suddenly came a loud shriek from beyond the heavens, and perhaps even the place down under. Humphrey, Kate, and Violet stumbled back and whimpered, turning their heads every which way. Then the shriek became a laugh, and an evil one at that. Something more piercing than Ellie's scream, and that's hard to come by. Beetee and Wiress put their hands to their ears and pretended they couldn't hear the sound, but they couldn't. Finally the laugh stopped, and a voice came. "Serpent's Fang. I have returned, questers."

**AR: **Just another short little ditty, I guess. Well, until next time, Adieu!


	3. The Snake's Speech

3. The Snake's Speech

"Peasants," the serpent hissed. "I had a feeling I would find you here, especially after I destroyed everything. From the moment I froze the Walls of Myth the walls were being destroyed. Michael, so nice to see you again." "I never saw you before!" Michael Vey shot back, panting. The serpent chuckled, or at least the questers thought it did. "You are just the fool you were when we first crossed paths with one another. Foolish questers...letting all those others die already? Quite selfish of you, I must say."

Manny sneered, but inside his brain was starting to twitch the wrong way, as if the serpent's words were drawing him into the dark side, against everyone he ever knew and loved. The serpent was confusing, especially when he muttered the words 'serpent's fang'. Was that a sort of swear word to serpents, or what? No, then they would just be insulting themselves and their battle strategies. The questers, though, were not sure they had very good ideas for battle strategies anymore.

"Hera, Swordneck, Julien, Zeus, and Mitchell? All dead already? I laugh in pity just thinking about how much you have failed already, and how much you are to fail in the end. With my serpent's fang, I will destroy you all, or you will destroy me, but there is no possible way you should know where to find this special serpent's fang, or how to use it, at that. That's how I see you are fools, for if you weren't fools, you would join me, because you cannot trust any of your friends.

"Whatever floats your boat, I suppose, but if I were you I would take me up on my offer. Silly weaklings...it is nearly unbearable to watch you in tears, at least one person dying each day. Without knowing it though, young questers, you have destroyed much of my combat army as well. Manny, my dear mammoth, do you really trust all these warriors? You would not know if, late at night, one would decide to betray you and electrocute you, and your family...would be already long gone by the rest of them. Pity.

"And Sid, you know that Diego has never liked you. Do you really think he has changed? Doesn't eat junk food...I laugh at that. A sloth like you could never be able to go up towards a saber like that. And Manny could stomp on you in seconds. Manny, look at that little sap. So vulnerable, so unworthy of living...you could kill him at any second. But you could really not be able to go up against Diego, you both know that. Set down that dagger, Howard, on Luxa's hand. Did you know she despised you before you began the quests? Ha ha ha.

"Lapblood, you do know that Swordneck was Ripred's best friend, correct? And you didn't bother against that dinosaur, and you had it kill Swordneck instead? Why, Lapblood, why? And Ripred, think about it. You never actually liked Lapblood, so why didn't you kill her after she just watched Swordneck die while you were unconscious? I know all of your fears, I've seen all of your nightmares, and I know how to make you feel self-conscious. Why is it always you, Ripred, that has to clean up everybody's messes?

"Beetee, listen to this. I shall say this in my best Wiress impression. _Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock._ Doesn't that ever annoy you? If I were you, I would, how you crazy kids say, shut her up? It may be the only answer, you know. But, if you want to live with that annoying sound until you die, that is fine by me. To me, being imprisoned in Cell 25 is better than listening to that annoying lady every day and night, 24/7, three hundred sixty five days a year. Hmm? Perhaps that's not a bad idea. Your choice.

"Electroclan...ha! You cannot even trust one another! Take Taylor for example." Here he reached out with his claws and grabbed Taylor by her left leg, but she did not dare to move at all. "She could reboot your mind at any moment, even though you are on her side. Freaky, isn't it? This kind little girl could turn into a killing machine if she would just say the word. I'd take her, and she would never have to bother you again. Or, and this seems a better choice, you could kill her, Ostin.

"She stole your best friend and, even though you think of her as a friend, what good would it do to let her live? And you could just tell me and I would drop her, from this high up. Unless Michael..." here he picked up Michael too, "is willing to save her, which I doubt. Ostin, make the right choice. Let me drop these dummies to the ground, and you would be rid of two troublemakers which brought you to the Elgen. Why do I let any of you live? I hate to, really I do. It is against my will."

Manny couldn't take it. The serpent twisted his brain around, and he had turned himself against all of his friends, all of the people he had ever met, for they were all dead to him. Perhaps the serpent was right, even about Sid. What good would it do to keep them alive, and just have them die along the way until the end of the battle? Why, oh why, did he have to make all the hard choices? It was him and Ripred that always had to set things right, and he finally understood all of the serpent's words.

In a moment of weakness, all the questers began to battle each other to the death.

**AR: **Ta-da! The serpent's speech was, I think, the greatest written chapter so far. But that's just me. Now, where did KaylaDestoyer go? More importantly, where the hell am I? Hmm...bye!


	4. Hidden Prizes

4. Hidden Prizes

Brother against brother, sister against sister, it was mad chaos. Gandalf was fighting Bilbo, Michael was fighting Taylor, and Ripred and Manny were fighting everybody else. Even Peaches seemed to think that everyone else was the villain. They had all gone insane because the serpent had twiste their brains around. The serpent smiled as he watched his plan falling into place, but very, very slowly. Soon enough they would all lay dead on the battlefield, and his job would be done. No one would ever find out more about the serpent's fang, and he would stay alive.

* * *

Scrat, as I told you he would, was drinking the fruity umbrella drinks, but something caught his eyes that made him scream in depression. Scrat now realized the fruity umbrella drinks weren't even fruit. They were acorn juice! Of course, that wasn't the thing that made him scream. Forming in the cup thanks to all the tiny bubbles, was a message like the ones before, but not in the acorn. In the acorn_ juice!_ He really didn't want to read it, for it was supposed to be his vacation away from all the madness, but his curiousity got the best of him. The message read this:

ENJOYING YOUR VACATION? THAT'S JUST DANDY  
WELL GO TO THE VOLCANO FROM THE DRINKS OF CANDY

* * *

The battle went on for hours, and Wiress was badly injured from Gandalf and Sarah, but she would live if she got medical attention very quickly which, sadly was seriously doubted. Gandalf, while battling Wiress, was slit in the arm from his shoulder to his elbow, and he was less likely to live. The serpent continued hissing, as if he was singing a song without any real words. Finally Manny snapped out of it and looked all around at his wounded friends. "Stop!" he screamed, and everyone looked at him in confusion. "Listen to this, Invictus, again."

Out of the night that covers me,  
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,  
I thank whatever gods may be  
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance  
I have not winced nor cried aloud.  
Under the bludgeonings of chance  
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears  
Looms but the Horror of the shade,  
And yet the menace of the years  
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,  
How charged with punishments the scroll.  
I am the master of my fate:  
I am the captain of my soul.

"Guys, you are the master of your fate, the captain of your soul," he told them. Gandalf looked at what he had done to Wiress, and what Sarah did to him, and all three sat down. Howard dropped his dagger and he and Luxa sat down as well. Pretty soon everyone had snapped out of it. The serpent shrieked. "Fools, you have let each other the hope of killing you. Get up!" No one did. The serpent started shaking and he stumbled back. Then Ellie spoke up. "And, just so you know, we'll kill you instead, serpent's fang or not!" The green creature bared his fangs and swooped down to kill her.

**AR: **Two chapters in one day! Hurray! Where, are you, KaylaDestroyer? Lonely...lonely...I have nobody...BYE!


	5. Hatch is Revealed

5. Hatch is Revealed

Ellie screamed as she ducked, and missed the giant snake by an inch. The serpent rammed his head into a tall pine tree, then turned around and hissed at the mammoth. Peaches squealed and ran behind her mother, the snake smiling, or at least it seemed as though he was smiling, in much enjoyment. Manny suddenly got very angry and speedily walked over to the green critter, shrieking a battle cry that sounded somewhat like, "Rispedente!" whatever that meant. Sid and Diego stared in confusion while Sarah and Gandalf continued recovering.

The emerald scale laughed in delight, just waiting for Manny to get close enough that he could kill him, and yet...he had told Four that he would not kill the questers...not yet. So, he sprang out of the way and with the mammoth's big feet, he tripped over a piece of the rubble and landed on his, now, slightly bent, tusks. His tail and his tusks! Pretty soon killing the snake, or whatever the real cause of the hargybargy happened to be. Diego took a gander over at his wounded friend, and bared his teeth, Sid and Ripred right by his sides.

Ripred ran for the snake first, and he cut a small piece of scales, a sort of green goo seeping through where the rat had cut. The serpent, still looking at Manny, cried in terror, and turned around to look at his chest. Diego put Sid on his back and, as soon as he got as close to the snake as he dared, he cut an even longer line from the bottom to his tail to about 3/4 up. The scale toppled over onto his left side, almost crushing Luxa, Howard, Michael, and Taylor all at once. He was not dead, though, that was very clear to see.

The snake was greatly offended, and stumbled back up to his tail. He had lost about 1/10 of his blood, which isn't as much a dent as they would have liked, at the size of the cuts Ripred and Diego had made. The serpent hissed once more and leaned in, snapping at Ripred and Diego, sadly, cutting off Sid's hand. The sloth, dramatically, made a big scene of it. "Ouch! Ooh, ouch! I can't go on, fellas. Save yourselves. Manny, to you, in my will, I leave..." "Sid!" Diego yelled. "You're fine, there's no blood pouring out, and you're lucky for that."

But they all knew that, just like Manny's tail, that would be the end of Sid's hand. They could ask Buck for help, maybe with a patch, if they knew where to find him in the first place. Breaking all the quester's brainstorming, the serpent hissed once more and said, "Fools, you know you are no match for me, even if you have wounded me. Remember, you still can't trust anyone, even yourselves. Manfred, a brave mammoth, don't you think all their lives would be safer if..." but he was cut off by a loud whooshing sound, which pulled everyone, including the snake, into a multicolored hole.

Sid shut his eyes and one of his ears to avoid Peaches' loud crying, but he, too, felt like crying. In fact, not only did he feel like crying, he even felt suicidal. Maybe it was the only way to escape the horrible mess that was going on in the world. All these things went through his head as he watched a large, new black hole, gradually getting smaller and smaller, until he found a light. _"This is it. This is where I will die," _he told himself. There was a loud boom sort of sound, like an explosion, and everything went black.

* * *

When he was brought back to reality he looked around to try to guess where he was, but instead he found a blinding light staring into his eyes from above. He wiped his eyes and sat up, still trying to figure where exactly he was. There was no one else in the room but a man with dirty black hair, in a black jumpsuit. Mareth. "Who are you?" Sid asked. "No mind that. But Hatch is waiting for you, so you must get into the main room very quick. All your friends are waiting for you."

When Sid got up and walked out of the room, Mareth cried softly, but many tears. How long would he have to stay like this? A slave to Hatch? It wasn't fair, but nothing was fair in the world. The sloth found his way into the main room, and sure enough, all his friends were there, but there was also one other person there. He had two cuts, one on each arm, and in a large locket was his weasel friend, Buck. So close, but so far. Hatch informed him, "Ah, now that you are all here, prepare to die."

**AR: **Exciting, no? Well, you just wait for the epic conclusion, and trust me, I will use something from this chapter in the last book, so be aware, and keep an eye out. Toodly doo!


End file.
